The Exodus Covenant, the American Past, and the Future

Christian author and commentator Os Guinness reviewed the commitments and resources available to the global church and to Christians in America in a time of enormous religious, social and legal flux in two presentations sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Institute on Nov. 11 at McLean Presbyterian Church. He expressed confidence that God “knows what lies ahead,” but rather than speculating as to what this might be, he focused on the marked departure of American and Western society from Christian commitments, and the ideas that Christians have available from Scripture and tradition to advance the kingdom of God.

In the first session, Guinness looked at the state of that the global church, in the second, at the state of the Christian church in America. He said that the global church is at a similar point as St. Augustine was, who lived as Rome fell after 800 years of invincibility. Augustine “articulated a vision of faithfulness.” He said we are similarly living in a state of civil collapse after 500 years of Western dominance in the world. In America, there is the “greatest crisis to the American republic since the civil war.” The Christian faith has been a first world religion for hundreds of years. It is now in decline in the West, but advancing in the non-Western world. There remains a Christian minority in Europe, and there is still a large Christian majority in America, but Christians have no appreciable influence on society.

Guinness said that the outcome of the crisis for the global church will depend on three questions. 1) Will Islam eventually “modernize peacefully,” and in particular, will there be freedom of conscience for non-Muslims in Muslim dominated societies? 2) What faith will replace Marxism in China? Possibilities are Confucianism, which is authoritarian (in contrast to the free personal choice engendered by the modern world), Buddhism (which is world-denying, in contrast to the world-affirming modernity), or Christianity, which, some speculate, could become “the majority faith in China.” 3) Will the West “sever or recover” its (largely) Judeo-Christian roots? The Judeo-Christian heritage has been predominate in the West over the Greco-Roman heritage. Now there is a titanic struggle as secular liberals are trying to make secularism into a new basis for life, taking over from Christianity as the principle faith of the West.

Guinness believes that this cultural crisis presents the church with three huge tasks: 1) Prepare the global South for the future. There is incredible growth in the church in the global South, but we must remember that however encouraging this is, it is Christian growth in pre-modern societies. Modern societies seem to pose an inherent threat to the Christian faith, Guinness believes. Western Christians must warn the new non-Western Christians to not “do what we did.” Guinness did not elaborate on everything done wrong, but the direction of his thought has been that the degree to which moral autonomy and naturalism are accepted by individuals and society will be a baneful influence. This secularization is often justified with a demand for unanimity in values in society between believers and unbelievers, which is impossible. No society should be held to a standard of unanimity. Also apologetics will help defend the Christian faith against rationalist attack. We must warn against rationalism itself as an impossible project for finite human beings. 2) Win back the Western world. This, he said, is not a political project. Guinness said that there were two other missions to the West. One was the conversion of Rome in the early Christian centuries, the second was the conversion of the barbarians in western Europe. Christians brought the gospel, liberties, law, and learning to barbarian Europe. He said that instead of gloom and alarmism at the present state of Christianity in the West, Christians should win people back in a non-political mission. 3) Prepare for the future. Guinness pointed to three changes in particular. We are living in a technological shift from pyrotechnology (fire) to biotechnology (life). The spiritual significance of this is that it is “fueling a new Babel drive for humans to be as God.” With this in mind, we should be wary of “scientist” kings replacing the older “philosopher” kings. Secondly, there is a shift from industrialization to knowledge economics (globalization). This is inflating problems like sex trafficking to global dimensions. There is also a global expansion of freedom. There is greater freedom to travel, greater global availability of technology, and a global expansion of profit. But the world has not become a “global village.” It is a world of “speed and stress” instead. Thirdly, there is a shift from a singular modernity to multiple modernities. In the past, the “top dog in the West was the top dog in the world.” Now there is an American modernity, an Asian modernity, etc. American dominance is now not present in many discussions in the world.

Christians need to be clear about the hostile sets of ideas that they face, Guinness said. These ideas include: 1) Postmodernism, with its claim that God is dead, truth is not objective, and the will to power is the final reality. 2) Social constructionism, that says that the social setting is determinative of thinking. There are “no givens, no rules, and no limits.” Transgenderism is a result of this. It says that reality is self-chosen (also formally declared by the Supreme Court). Realities are held to be “oppressive obstacles.” 3) The sexual revolution, which is now totalitarian with the introduction of the notion of discrimination. Guinness pointed out that twentieth century social commentator Leo Strauss said that the pressure of antidiscrimination doctrine will destroy democracy. It is also inimical to Christianity. The story of creation is the story of distinctions being made (between light and darkness, etc.). In ancient Jewish thought, Guinness pointed out, God is held to be the “great discriminator.” On the other hand, the tower of Babel tried to get rid of distinctions (the distinction of language being the focus).

In line with the radical freedom advanced by these ideas, Guinness said that the modern world tends to shift us from a stance of authority to a stance of preference. Consumer choice is important. Choice is also important in faith, but today many people have a “cafeteria” faith, in which they pick and choose which parts of the Christian faith they want. Softness and syncretism are thus entering the church.

The result, Guinness said, is that the church has become weak because it has become worldly. Christian life is integrated under the lordship of Jesus, but the modern world shifts life from “integration to fragmentation.” The modern world also tends to shift the focus of life from the “supernatural to the secular.” But Jesus did all his miracles “in the power of the Spirit.” Christian life cannot exist apart from integration focused on Jesus and the supernatural. He noted that Augustine found that there were more than 50 miracles in Hippo. This led to a medieval interest with saints and holy places. The Reformation rejected post-Biblical miracles, and viewed the medieval preoccupation with miracles as superstitious. But Calvin was a “theologian of the Holy Spirit.” Modernity dispenses with supernaturalism entirely, and today, despite a nominal Christian majority, many Americans are “operationally” atheists.

Maintaining life in the supernatural is the great challenge for Christians today, Guinness seemed to indicate. He said that there was an incredible debate after World War II among Christian scholars about whether “the church can be ‘warmed’ again the third time,” after the conversion of Rome and the barbarians. Historian Christopher Dawson said that every Christian must say “yes.” On the outcome of this question is “the future of humanity,” Guinness asserted. Christians, he said, “are the last great champions and defenders of human dignity [and] … freedom.”

Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defending Freedom asked in a question and answer time if Christians now have a “bunker mentality.” Guinness said that a “lot of Christians do and it’s a tragedy.” This is no time for a bunker mentality. The “Benedict option” is not the correct mission for the church, he believes.

In the second presentation focusing on America, Guinness said that the American Revolution had its deepest source in the Exodus. This was the basis for the idea of covenantal government. Other sources, although less important, were Greece and England. Colonists appealed to the “ancient liberties of the English.” From ancient Greece, the philosophers identified monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy as basic types of government, and held that democracy ends with the love for a tyrant. This was influential with the American founders. But Guinness said that recent scholarship has focused on not types of government, but “the founding of societies.” “Some societies are organic” (as an African tribe or a Scottish clan would be), secondly, the main historical form of society is hierarchical (as with a kingdom or empire), and the third form of society, derived from the Bible, is covenantal, and exemplified in ancient Israel and early America.

The Exodus saw a shift from an organic society, which was the family of Abraham, to the nation of Israel living under a covenant. The covenant shaped Israel. Relationships in a covenantal society are more important than the specific regime. The Biblical Exodus was rediscovered by the Reformation. It was noted that the term “Whig” came from “Whiggamores,” or covenanters. While covenantism failed in England, it succeeded in New England. Guinness pointed out that many aspects of American politics and law ultimately come from the Exodus and the covenant of God with Israel which followed. The radical sovereignty of God underlies the entire Exodus, and makes law stable. By contrast, the French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions were atheistic and rationalistic, and therefore lacked a solid basis of law. But although given by God, the Biblical covenant was freely chosen by the people. This is the origin of the idea of the “consent of the governed.” The covenant was “a morally binding pledge,” and a matter of reciprocal responsibility for all. The faith of the American slaves focused on the Exodus, and Martin Luther King’s last sermon before his death focused on the Exodus. The early American system was thus a covenantal system under God. The distinct offices of king, priest, and prophet were “the first separation of powers.” But the American system has moved from being “a covenant under God” (as it was for ancient Israel and in colonial New England), to being “a constitution under God” (in the nineteenth century), to being a constitution without God.

This latest American system “simply will not hold freedom together,” Guinness maintained. The earlier American systems brought together faith and freedom. In other countries, those who “loved religion attacked liberty,” and those who “loved liberty attacked freedom.” In America, faith and freedom reinforced one another. In covenantal societies, the words of the law are binding, whereas in hierarchical societies, the words of the law are not binding on rulers.

Guinness said that the weakness of a covenantal society is that people ‘don’t keep promises well.” David Hume mocked promise keeping. Guinness asked if there is an American leader who understands the covenantal basis of America. He does not find any leader referring to the American founding as a realistic basis for the future. In contrast to the “human book ends” of “anarchy and despotism,” the idea of covenant is an “incredible balance.” But while “humans don’t keep their promises …the Lord does.”

A questioner asked if there remains a private space for Christian faith and practice in an increasingly secular country. Guinness responded that religious freedom was valued in America up through the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA). In the last twenty years the consensus for religious freedom has collapsed. Privatization of religious freedom has occurred, and it is now being re-branded as prejudice, as it recently was by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

Guinness said that today the vision of the founders is “routinely dismissed.” But the founders’ vision of a covenantal society was the distinctive American vision, based on God’s revelation concerning life in this world. A hopeful sign for the future, Guinness believes, is that young people appreciate “a healthy understanding of reality … A fully Biblical supernatural reality” is thus appreciated.